All my thoughts about digital technology, robotics and innovation.

Month: April 2015

In order to know Varnish Cache if is running and able to handle HTTP requests properly, without having the backends as part the equation please add the following VCL snippet makes sure that the URL /heart-beat always returns 200:

vclFiddle, is a free online tool for experimenting with the Varnish Cache HTTP reverse-proxy in a sandboxed environment where you can reproduce a website caching scenario for testing, collaborative debugging, or just trying new ideas, with the least friction possible.

sub vcl_deliver {
# Called before a cached object is delivered to the client.
if (resp.http.magicmarker) {
unset resp.http.magicmarker;
# By definition we have a fresh object
set resp.http.Age = "0";
}
if (obj.hits > 0) { # Add debug header to see if it's a HIT/MISS and the number of hits, disable when not needed
set resp.http.X-Cache = "HIT";
} else {
set resp.http.X-Cache = "MISS";
}
# Please note that obj.hits behaviour changed in 4.0, now it counts per objecthead, not per object
# and obj.hits may not be reset in some cases where bans are in use. See bug 1492 for details.
# So take hits with a grain of salt
set resp.http.X-Cache-Hits = obj.hits;
# Set Varnish server name
set resp.http.X-Served-By = server.hostname;
# Remove some headers: PHP version
unset resp.http.X-Powered-By;
# Remove some headers: Apache version & OS
unset resp.http.Server;
unset resp.http.X-Varnish;
unset resp.http.Via;
unset resp.http.Link;
unset resp.http.X-Generator;
return (deliver);
}

In Varnish 3, in order to customize the error page you should customize the subroutine VCL_ERROR:

Things changes in Varnish 4, errors that occur in the backend server subroutine VCL_BACKEND_ERROR are processed used the SYNTH command in the VCL and defined by creating a specific synthetic object in the subroutine VCL_SYNTH.

Following a VCL example that generate a 404 managed by a synthetic object by invoking the following URL http://www.myservname.com:port/404 When you access to the URL, Synth (status_code, reason).